The Spanish newspaper El Pais is on a stupid streak. An article on the Russian writer and notorious neo-Nazi Limonov says that he “grew up in Kharkiv which is now located in Ukraine.” I grew up in Kharkiv and I can assure you that it was always in Ukraine. When Ukraine was part of the USSR, Kharkiv was still in Ukraine.
Kharkiv was founded in 1654 by a famous Ukrainian Cossack Kharko with the purpose of defending Ukraine’s borders. It was a major seat of Ukrainian Cossacks since the beginning of its existence and never identified as anything but a Ukrainian city. Nobody ever tried to claim it was anything but a Ukrainian city.
Today, the Russian-speaking Kharkiv is completely pro-Ukrainian. Russia smuggled propagandists and agitators across the border a few times but Kharkivites kicked their asses. Recently, Kharkivites became famous for a funny and obscene anti-Putin chant that became known all over the world. For instance, you could hear Algerian soccer fans chanting it during the World Cup.
Saying that “Kharkiv is now located in Ukraine” is as stupid as saying that “Madrid is now located in Spain.”
Is there any reason why mainstream journalists are not doing even a superficial online search before publishing garbage?

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